1673: Mummy and the Dummy

“The decision-makers are two people — it’s the president and his wife,” one of the sources familiar with the discussions said, adding: “Anyone who doesn’t understand how deeply personal and familial this decision will be isn’t knowledgeable about the situation.”

Despite delivering a rousing speech at a rally in North Carolina on Friday that calmed some of his allies, Biden was described by one person familiar with his mood as humiliated, devoid of confidence and painfully aware that the physical images of him at the debate — eyes staring into the distance, mouth agape — will live beyond his presidency, along with a performance that at times was meandering, incoherent and difficult to hear.

“It’s a mess,” this person said.

“The only person who has ultimate influence with him is the first lady,” this person said. “If she decides there should be a change of course, there will be a change of course.”

After publication of this report, a source familiar reached out to stress that the Camp David gathering was not a formal family meeting.

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National security

MIC in charge?

It was all a setup, especially the "cheap fakes" nonsense

The timing and format of the debate

No more Palestine coverage

Time for an "event"?

Erin Burnett Ozempic

The president [appeared on Thursday night](https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/27/us/politics/biden-debate-democrats.html) as the shadow of a great public servant. He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump’s provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.

Mr. Biden has been an admirable president. Under his leadership, [the nation has prospered] and begun to address a range of long-term challenges, and the wounds ripped open by Mr. Trump have begun to heal. But the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.

The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.

Fellas, just listening to yesterday’s episode (1673) and I’ve had a TS clearance or higher since 2007. The reason it’s illegal for ME to look at disclosed classified information is because I’ve signed an agreement for the rest of my life that I’ll handle classified materials according to the various rules. If I read it on a computer that isn’t specifically designated for the level of STILL classified material, or if I discuss it with anyone who isn’t authorized then it’s punishable under those rules and the agreement that I signed. ITM

Adam—I’ve had time to reflect on yesterday’s _Loper Bright / Relentless_ decision—two cases decided in a single opinion. Here’s my prediction, for what it’s worth.

Justice Kagan’s dissent predicts judicial mayhem. She foresees “large-scale disruption” and “a massive shock to the legal system, ‘cast[ing] doubt on many settled constructions’ of statutes and threatening the interests of many parties who have relied on them for years.”

Nonsense.

This decision didn’t strip administrative agencies of their interpretive powers. They’ll continue to do what they’ve always done—issue rules and regulations and interpret those edicts when the time comes to enforce them. The _only_ difference now is that courts no longer have to defer to what the agency says. **My prediction: Courts will still view agency interpretations as persuasive authority (under a doctrine called _Skidmore_ Deference), and will accept those interpretations most of the time.** No judicial Armageddon is at hand.

But going forward, agencies can no longer come up with strained but “permissible” interpretations and expect the courts to capitulate. Big corporations can no longer place “their” people in the agencies to make lopsided rules that will benefit well-connected business interests at everyone else’s expense. This is good news!

Nor does yesterday’s decision mean that all precedents following _Chevron_ are now bad law. The fact is, most of these cases probably would have been decided the same way because, in most cases, the agency’s interpretation was probably the most persuasive option. We should expect a few old decisions to be overruled, but that will take time—and let’s face it, bad laws ought to die anyway.

Nitrous oxide has significant global warming potential as a greenhouse gas. On a per-molecule basis, considered over a 100-year period, nitrous oxide has 265 times the atmospheric heat-trapping ability of carbon dioxide (CO

2).[108] However, because of its low concentration (less than 1/1,000 of that of CO

2), its contribution to the greenhouse effect is less than one third that of carbon dioxide, and also less than methane.[129] On the other hand, since about 40% of the N

2O entering the atmosphere is the result of human activity,[116] control of nitrous oxide is part of efforts to curb greenhouse gas emissions.[130]

Most human caused nitrous oxide released into the atmosphere is a greenhouse gas emission from agriculture, when farmers add nitrogen-based fertilizers onto the fields, and through the breakdown of animal manure. Reduction of emissions can be a hot topic in the politics of climate change.[131]

Nitrous oxide is also released as a by-product of burning fossil fuel, though the amount released depends on which fuel was used. It is also emitted through the manufacture of nitric acid, which is used in the synthesis of nitrogen fertilizers. The production of adipic acid, a precursor to nylon and other synthetic clothing fibres, also releases nitrous oxide.[132]

A rise in atmospheric nitrous oxide concentrations has been implicated as a possible contributor to the extremely intense global warming during the Cenomanian-Turonian boundary event.[133]

SCOTUS just reversed the goofy Ninth Circuit holding. Rousting homeless and not paying for their heating and cooling is not “cruel and unusual punishment.” Once again, it was the common 6-3 split, with the usual three liberals dissenting.

CDC recommends everyone ages 6 months and older receive an updated 2024-2025 COVID-19 vaccine to protect against the potentially serious outcomes of COVID-19 this fall and winter whether or not they have ever previously been vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine.

Mallinckrodt may be the largest seller of prescription opioids in the US that has garnered the fewest headlines. With $18bn (£14.1bn; €16.6bn) in sales from 2006 to 2012 and nearly 40% of all opioid pills sold on the US market, it was the lead producer of prescription opioids during that time.12 The more notorious Purdue Pharma ranked third. Mallinckrodt, with its baby blue 30 mg oxycodone tablets and various other opioids, paved a “blue highway” along the Appalachians to Florida.3 These tablets were so popular that counterfeits in the same hue and with Mallinckrodt’s “M30” marking—but containing fentanyl—are still sold on the street today.4

Mallinckrodt survives as a multimillion dollar corporation, despite settling with the US government for lax handling of its opioid supply and later being ordered to pay $1.7bn over accusations of misleading and deceptive marketing practices to boost opioid sales. It has twice filed for bankruptcy and has largely avoided paying,5 but it did have to turn over 1.3 million internal documents, mostly from 2009 to 2017, which became public.

Mallinckrodt wasn’t the first drug manufacturer forced by litigation into legal discovery, but unlike Purdue it didn’t fight tooth and nail to keep its documents out of the public eye.6 The Washington Post, which had an exclusive first look at the Mallinckrodt files in 2022, revealed that the company “cultivated a reliable stable of hundreds of doctors it could count on to write a steady stream of prescriptions for pain pills.” A company spokesperson told the Post that it disagreed with the allegations despite “negotiating a comprehensive, complete and final settlement.” Mallinckrodt didn’t respond to our request for comment.

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I very much enjoyed your show on 6/27. I wanted to weigh in on the banner headline from the show. The clip y'all played was a great it gave me a good laugh, and reminder me that folks often rediscover ancient technology. I have been a student of Earthships and alternative building practices for some time. I learned about the concept of "sand batteries" under the name "thermal mass" folks have been using earth berms in their homes, passive solar, and heating units such as Rock Mass Heaters and Masonry Fireplaces. While their outlandish claims of storing 600 C sand and using it like a faucet sounds like something a kid would come up with. If we built our houses with thermal mass in mind, we could actually use less energy in the winter and summer.

Link

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 16:29

Tech companies are spending big on the AI craze, but it will be a while before they have much '-- if anything '-- to show for it.

As companies prepare to spend over $1 trillion on artificial intelligence, a Goldman Sachs report examined the big question at hand: "Will this large spend ever pay off?"

That sizable investment will go toward the data centers needed to run AI, the power grid, and AI chips. But shortages of those AI ingredients could lead to disappointing returns for companies.

"AI technology is exceptionally expensive, and to justify those costs, the technology must be able to solve complex problems, which it isn't designed to do," Jim Covello, the head of Global Equity Research at Goldman Sachs, said in the report.

"The starting point for costs is also so high that even if costs decline, they would have to do so dramatically to make automating tasks with AI affordable," he added. "In our experience, even basic summarization tasks often yield illegible and nonsensical results."

He's not wrong. Google scaled back its AI use in search after its bot began making some odd suggestions, including telling a Business Insider correspondent to put glue on their pizza to keep the cheese in place.

The tech industry is also "too complacent in its assumption that AI costs will decline substantially over time," especially when that assumption seems to rely on competition dethroning Nvidia, which dominates the market with its AI chips, Covello said.

Other experts quoted by Goldman Sachs were more enthusiastic.

"AI technology is undoubtedly expensive today. And the human brain is 10,000x more effective per unit of power in performing cognitive tasks vs. generative AI," said Kash Rangan, a senior equity research analyst at Goldman Sachs. "But the technology's cost equation will change, just as it always has in the past."

Eric Sheridan, another senior equity research analyst at the company, compared it to the tepid initial reactions to technological developments like the iPhone and Uber.

"People didn't think they needed smartphones, Uber, or Airbnb before they existed. But today it seems unthinkable that people ever resisted such technological progress. And that will almost certainly prove true for generative AI technology as well," Sheridan said.

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 16:26

Novo Nordisk's new manufacturing facility in Clayton, North Carolina.

Courtesy: Novo Nordisk

Novo Nordisk on Monday said it will spend $4.1 billion to build a new manufacturing plant in Clayton, North Carolina, in a bid to boost the supply of its blockbuster weight loss drug Wegovy, diabetes treatment Ozempic and other injectable therapies.

Demand for Wegovy and Ozempic has outstripped supply over the last year, spurring intermittent shortages in the U.S. and forcing the Danish drugmaker to invest heavily to increase its manufacturing footprint. The company said it plans to invest $6.8 billion in production this year, up from roughly $4 billion last year.

The new manufacturing facility will be responsible for filling and packaging syringes and injection pens for the drugs, according to a company release.

"This investment really gives us the opportunity to serve more patients," Doug Langa, Novo Nordisk's head of North American operations, said in an interview. "Importantly, I think the other key message here is it's further investment in the U.S., so I think we're very proud of that."

Construction of the 1.4 million-square-foot facility has begun and is expected to be completed between 2027 and 2029, Novo Nordisk said. The company said 1,000 workers will staff the site, adding to the 2,500 employees already working at its three existing manufacturing plants in North Carolina.

That includes two sites that are already operational in Clayton '-- one responsible for fill and finish work and another dedicated to producing the active ingredient in the company's diabetes pill Rybelsus. The company also has a site in Durham, North Carolina, responsible for manufacturing and packaging oral drugs and another facility in West Lebanon, New Hampshire.

More CNBC health coverageTwelve other production sites are located in Denmark, France, China, Japan, Algeria, Brazil, Iran and Russia, according to a Novo Nordisk spokesperson.

Three lower doses of Wegovy are currently in shortage in the U.S. due to high demand, according to a Food and Drug Administration database. Patients start Wegovy with lower doses and gradually increase the amount every four weeks until they reach a target dosage.

Wegovy and Ozempic are part of a class of medications called GLP-1s that mimic hormones produced in the gut to suppress a person's appetite and regulate their blood sugar.

Around 35,000 U.S. patients on average start Wegovy each week today, up from roughly 27,000 in May, a Novo Nordisk spokesperson said in a statement. Still, Langa said the company is being "very purposeful" about how many lower doses it is releasing into the U.S. market to ensure patients who have already started taking Wegovy can continue treatment with higher doses.

Rival drugmaker Eli Lilly has also committed billions of dollars to increase manufacturing capacity for its popular GLP-1s for weight loss and diabetes, Zepbound and Mounjaro. The company similarly has several production plants in North Carolina.

Don't miss these insights from CNBC PROCorrection: Novo Nordisk's existing facilities in Clayton, North Carolina, are responsible for fill and finish work and for producing the active ingredient in the company's diabetes pill Rybelsus. A previous version of this story misstated those functions.

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 13:35

To the editor: In his State of the State address, Gov. Gavin Newsom ridiculed ''delusional California bashers.'' It is Newsom's behavior that is deeply delusional.

California has one of the highest unemployment rates and gas prices in the nation. The Legislature and governor had to slash the state budget to close a $46.8-billion deficit. We are unable to account for billions of dollars in spending on homelessness. Businesses and residents are leaving the state.

Despite all this, Newsom has the temerity to claim that ''people across the globe look to California and see what's possible.'' Beyond that, rather than staying in California to address the crises facing the state, he freely travels across the country criticizing red states for how they are run.

This governor is impervious to reason.

Sam Chaidez, Mission Hills

..

To the editor: Newsom's attack on California's bashers and particularly red states and their political leaders is rich to say the least. A comparison of his targets, the economies and their growth provides an amusing answer to who is actually delusional.

And U-Haul rental rates in and out of California provide plenty of empirical evidence.

Kip Dellinger, Santa Monica

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 11:59

Opinion | To Serve His Country, President Biden Should Leave the Race https://www.nytimes.com/2024/06/28/opinion/biden-election-debate-trump.htmlThe Editorial Board

Credit... Damon Winter/The New York Times By The Editorial Board

The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.

President Biden has repeatedly and rightfully described the stakes in this November's presidential election as nothing less than the future of American democracy.

Donald Trump has proved himself to be a significant jeopardy to that democracy '-- an erratic and self-interested figure unworthy of the public trust. He systematically attempted to undermine the integrity of elections. His supporters have described, publicly, a 2025 agenda that would give him the power to carry out the most extreme of his promises and threats. If he is returned to office, he has vowed to be a different kind of president, unrestrained by the checks on power built into the American political system.

Mr. Biden has said that he is the candidate with the best chance of taking on this threat of tyranny and defeating it. His argument rests largely on the fact that he beat Mr. Trump in 2020. That is no longer a sufficient rationale for why Mr. Biden should be the Democratic nominee this year.

At Thursday's debate, the president needed to convince the American public that he was equal to the formidable demands of the office he is seeking to hold for another term. Voters, however, cannot be expected to ignore what was instead plain to see: Mr. Biden is not the man he was four years ago.

The president appeared on Thursday night as the shadow of a great public servant. He struggled to explain what he would accomplish in a second term. He struggled to respond to Mr. Trump's provocations. He struggled to hold Mr. Trump accountable for his lies, his failures and his chilling plans. More than once, he struggled to make it to the end of a sentence.

Mr. Biden has been an admirable president. Under his leadership, the nation has prospered and begun to address a range of long-term challenges, and the wounds ripped open by Mr. Trump have begun to heal. But the greatest public service Mr. Biden can now perform is to announce that he will not continue to run for re-election.

As it stands, the president is engaged in a reckless gamble. There are Democratic leaders better equipped to present clear, compelling and energetic alternatives to a second Trump presidency. There is no reason for the party to risk the stability and security of the country by forcing voters to choose between Mr. Trump's deficiencies and those of Mr. Biden. It's too big a bet to simply hope Americans will overlook or discount Mr. Biden's age and infirmity that they see with their own eyes.

If the race comes down to a choice between Mr. Trump and Mr. Biden, the sitting president would be this board's unequivocal pick. That is how much of a danger Mr. Trump poses. But given that very danger, the stakes for the country and the uneven abilities of Mr. Biden, the United States needs a stronger opponent to the presumptive Republican nominee. To make a call for a new Democratic nominee this late in a campaign is a decision not taken lightly, but it reflects the scale and seriousness of Mr. Trump's challenge to the values and institutions of this country and the inadequacy of Mr. Biden to confront him.

Ending his candidacy would be against all of Mr. Biden's personal and political instincts. He has picked himself up from tragedies and setbacks in the past and clearly believes he can do so again. Supporters of the president are already explaining away Thursday's debate as one data point compared with three years of accomplishments. But the president's performance cannot be written off as a bad night or blamed on a supposed cold, because it affirmed concerns that have been mounting for months or even years. Even when Mr. Biden tried to lay out his policy proposals, he stumbled. It cannot be outweighed by other public appearances because he has limited and carefully controlled his public appearances.

It should be remembered that Mr. Biden challenged Mr. Trump to this verbal duel. He set the rules, and he insisted on a date months earlier than any previous general election debate. He understood that he needed to address longstanding public concerns about his mental acuity and that he needed to do so as soon as possible.

The truth Mr. Biden needs to confront now is that he failed his own test.

In polls and interviews, voters say they are seeking fresh voices to take on Mr. Trump. And the consolation for Mr. Biden and his supporters is that there is still time to rally behind a different candidate. While Americans are conditioned to the long slog of multiyear presidential elections, in many democracies, campaigns are staged in the space of a few months.

It is a tragedy that Republicans themselves are not engaged in deeper soul-searching after Thursday's debate. Mr. Trump's own performance ought to be regarded as disqualifying. He lied brazenly and repeatedly about his own actions, his record as president and his opponent. He described plans that would harm the American economy, undermine civil liberties and fray America's relationships with other nations. He refused to promise that he would accept defeat, returning instead to the kind of rhetoric that incited the Jan. 6 attack on Congress.

The Republican Party, however, has been co-opted by Mr. Trump's ambitions. The burden rests on the Democratic Party to put the interests of the nation above the ambitions of a single man.

Democrats who have deferred to Mr. Biden must now find the courage to speak plain truths to the party's leader. The confidants and aides who have encouraged the president's candidacy and who sheltered him from unscripted appearances in public should recognize the damage to Mr. Biden's standing and the unlikelihood that he can repair it.

Mr. Biden answered an urgent question on Thursday night. It was not the answer that he and his supporters were hoping for. But if the risk of a second Trump term is as great as he says it is '-- and we agree with him that the danger is enormous '-- then his dedication to this country leaves him and his party only one choice.

The clearest path for Democrats to defeat a candidate defined by his lies is to deal truthfully with the American public: acknowledge that Mr. Biden can't continue his race, and create a process to select someone more capable to stand in his place to defeat Mr. Trump in November.

It is the best chance to protect the soul of the nation '-- the cause that drew Mr. Biden to run for the presidency in 2019 '-- from the malign warping of Mr. Trump. And it is the best service that Mr. Biden can provide to a country that he has nobly served for so long.

The editorial board is a group of opinion journalists whose views are informed by expertise, research, debate and certain longstanding values. It is separate from the newsroom.

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 10:25

Some of the 51 ''Spies Who Lie'' were active CIA contractors when they claimed files from first son Hunter Biden's laptop had ''the classic earmarks'' of Russian disinformation ahead of the 2020 election '-- a fact that was uneasily noted inside the agency at the time, new records acquired by The Post show.

Former CIA acting director Michael Morell, who previously told Congress he organized the Oct. 19, 2020, letter to give Joe Biden a ''talking point'' ahead of a debate against then-President Donald Trump, was a contractor at the time, the agency recently confirmed to Congress.

Former CIA inspector general David Buckley also was a contractor at the time of the letter, according to an interim report from two House committees investigating the matter.

The terms of their contracts and compensation were not immediately clear and the House panels believe additional letter-signers may have been contractors '-- even though the letter described the signers as ''former'' officeholders.

''This frustrates me. I don't think it is helpful to the Agency in the long run,'' a CIA official whose identity was redacted wrote on Oct. 20, 2020 '-- the day after the letter was distributed to Politico '-- with a link to the outlet's story.

''I also love that at least a few of the random signatures belong to individuals currently working here on contracts'...,'' responded another official, whose name also was redacted.

The federal Hatch Act bars most employees of the CIA and other spy agencies from engaging in partisan political activity, but the status of contractors is murkier.

The CIA indicated Morell and Buckley were contractors in a table which specified that former CIA director John Brennan and fellow letter-signers Nick Rasmussen and Marc Polymeropoulos had no such arrangement.

A separate agency-provided table showing officials who had either badge clearance or contracts at the time suggests that other signers had formal relationships with The Company.

That table also indicates that Morell's contract lapsed at some point after Oct. 19, 2020, and that he entered into a new contract on May 1, 2021, as an ''independent contractor'' '-- though that relationship was qualified as including ''no fee senior advisory services,'' making the financial component unclear.

Morell's colleague at Beacon Global Strategies, fellow letter-signer Jeremy Bash, is identified in the second table as an ''independent contractor'' as well '-- serving as a ''contractor/green badge'' holder from April 2, 2019, through April 1, 2022, with a brief gap before receiving a new deal beginning in August 2022.

Another letter-signer, former National Security Agency deputy director, Richard Ledgett, was also listed as having the same status at the time of the letter.

The disclosures are contained within an interim report by the House Intelligence Committee and the House Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government '-- which also reveals that then-CIA Director Gina Haspel likely knew about the letter when it was submitted for review.

''The new information included in this report, based on new testimony and declassified documents, shows the potential dangers of a politicized intelligence community,'' the interim report by the House panels says.

''Some of the signatories of the statement were on the CIA payroll at the time as contractors and others had special access to CIA facilities.

''Even Michael Morell '-- before the Committees learned of his contract with the CIA '-- acknowledged, 'It's inappropriate for a currently serving staff officer or contractor to be involved in the political process.'''

The report notes that: ''Due to purported operational concerns, the CIA declined to declassify the entire universe of signatories who were on active contract.''

Then-candidate Biden used the intelligence alumni letter to falsely claim at his second and final 2020 presidential debate with Trump that The Post's reporting on his role in his family's international business dealings was a ''Russian plant'' and ''garbage.''

''There are 50 former national intelligence folks who said that what he's accusing me of is a Russian plant,'' Biden said of Trump. ''Five former heads of the CIA, both parties, say what he's saying is a bunch of garbage. Nobody believes it except his good friend Rudy Giuliani.''

Morell testified to Congress last year that he was inspired to organize the letter after receiving a call from future Secretary of State Antony Blinken, a longtime Biden adviser.

The Post's first laptop bombshell '-- published five days before the 51-person letter was made public '-- revealed that Vadym Pozharskyi, an executive at the Ukrainian gas company Burisma, emailed Hunter in 2015 to thank him for the ''opportunity to meet your father'' '-- directly contradicting Biden's 2019 claim that he'd ''never spoken'' with his son about ''his overseas business dealings.''

The Biden campaign vaguely denied that the meeting occurred. But further reporting corroborated key details, including the fact that Joe Biden attended a 2015 DC dinner one day before the Burisma exec's email. A group of his son's associates, including Pozharskyi and a trio from Kazakhstan that posed for a photo with the Bidens, attended.

Hunter earned up to $1 million per year to serve on Burisma's board from 2014 to 2019, beginning when his father led the Obama administration's Ukraine policy.

A second October 2020 bombshell from The Post '-- published four days before the spies' statement '-- described communications about Hunter Biden and his uncle Jim Biden's business venture with the Chinese state-linked company CEFC China Energy, a since-defunct reputed cog in Beijing's ''Belt and Road'' foreign influence campaign.

A May 13, 2017, email from the laptop said the ''big guy'' would get 10% of the CEFC deal and former Biden family associate Rob Walker testified to Congress that Joe Biden met with the company's chairman Ye Jianming before cash began to flow earlier that year.

The CIA did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday and The Post was not immediately able to reach Morell or Buckley.

Read the full article here.

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Archived Version

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 03:33

A Startling AccusationIn a shocking turn of events, Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a grave warning to the world. He claims that the United States, under the control of Deep State operatives, is preparing to launch a second pandemic aimed at disrupting the 2024 election. This startling information was revealed during a military press conference in Russia, where officials outlined a supposed plot involving the release of an avian bioweapon.

The Alleged Plot: Avian Bioweapon False FlagAccording to the Kremlin, the US plans to release a bird flu bioweapon before the November election. This act would allow the Biden administration to declare a state of emergency, implement lockdowns, and roll out Bill Gates' new bird flu vaccine. Non-compliant citizens, they claim, would be sent to newly constructed secret detention facilities across all 50 states.

Bird Flu Outbreak: Are We Witnessing a Manufactured Food Crisis?

Emergency Powers and Vaccine RolloutThe alleged plan involves a series of drastic measures. By declaring a state of emergency, the Biden administration could gain extraordinary powers to control the population. The introduction of a new bird flu vaccine, developed by Bill Gates, would be a key component of this strategy. The vaccine rollout would be mandatory, and those who refuse could face severe consequences, including detention in secret facilities.

Global Elite DesperationAs legal pressures mount, the global elite are said to be more desperate than ever. The Kremlin urges the world to stay vigilant, questioning every move made by the Biden administration. The stakes are high, and according to Russian officials, the globalists are prepared to go to extreme lengths to ensure their hold on power.

CDC Declares New Bird Flu Symptom: 'No Symptoms at All'

Questioning the NarrativeWith these alarming claims, it's crucial to critically evaluate the information presented. Is there evidence to support such a conspiracy, or is this a strategic move by Russia to influence global opinion? As the election approaches, the importance of discerning truth from misinformation becomes increasingly vital.

A Call for VigilanceIn these uncertain times, staying informed and critically analyzing all information is more important than ever. Whether or not the allegations hold any truth, the message is clear: be vigilant, question everything, and remain aware of the broader political landscape as we move closer to the 2024 election.

Free Speech and Alternative Media are under attack by the Deep State. Chris Wick News needs reader support to survive and thrive.

We are a privately owned website funded solely by donations from our readers, Every dollar helps. Contributions help keep the site active and help support the author (and his medical bills)

Please Contribute via GoGetFunding

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Archived Version

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 22:47

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., unveiled a bill Oct. 9 to establish a commission that could be tasked with determining if a president is no longer fit for office.

The bill from Raskin, a former constitutional scholar, comes on the heels of President Donald Trump's Oct. 2 announcement of his positive COVID-19 test. The bill would create what would be known as the ''Commission on Presidential Capacity to Discharge the Powers and Duties of the Office" in accordance with the 25th Amendment to the Constitution.

The commission would not have the unilateral power to invoke the 25th Amendment and kick Trump or any future president out of the White House. Pelosi and Raskin insisted in a press conference that the move was unrelated to the election less than a month away.

"This is not about President Trump," said Pelosi. "He will face the judgment of the voters. But he shows the need for us to create a process for future presidents."

Trump responded to the news by tweeting that Pelosi is angling to one day replace Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden with his running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris. There is no factual basis to support that claim, and Pelosi would not sit on the commission the bill would create.

Crazy Nancy Pelosi is looking at the 25th Amendment in order to replace Joe Biden with Kamala Harris. The Dems want that to happen fast because Sleepy Joe is out of it!!!

'-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) October 9, 2020The Constitution allows for such a commission

The 25th Amendment, established in 1967 after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, spelled out general procedures to guide the replacement of a president or vice president in the event of death, incapacitation, resignation or removal from office.

RELATED: What happens if a president or nominee dies or is incapacitated? Around elections, it gets thorny

The first three sections of the amendment lay out the succession plan for when these top two positions go vacant. They also allow the president to declare himself unable to carry out his duties and temporarily transfer the powers of the presidency to the vice president.

The fourth and final section is what's relevant to Raskin's bill. The section authorizes the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet, or "of such other body as Congress may by law provide," to declare a president "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office."

"Legislation like this is provided for in §4," tweeted Brian Kalt, a law professor at Michigan State University and the author of a book on the provision. "It says that the VP and Cabinet invoke §4, but that Congress can legislate a different body to substitute for the Cabinet in that process."

"It gave Congress the power to replace the Cabinet with 'such other body' as it might create by law," added Joel K. Goldstein, a professor of law emeritus at St. Louis University and the author of two books on the vice presidency, in an email. "If such a body was created, a majority of it would act with the vice president under section 4 of the amendment instead of the Cabinet."

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., gestures to a board displaying the fourth section of the 25th Amendment during a press conference at the Capitol in Washington on Oct. 9, 2020. (AP)

The bipartisan commission outlined in Raskin's bill would consist of 17 members, a mix of medical experts and former high-ranking officials selected by House and Senate leadership.

The body would include eight physicians '-- with each member of House and Senate leadership appointing two '-- plus four former high-ranking executive branch officials selected by the Republican leaders and four former high-ranking officials chosen by the Democratic leaders.

The final member, the chair, would be appointed separately by those 16 members.

Currently, the congressional leadership is made up of Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer from the Democratic Party, along with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy from the Republican Party.

What happens under the status quo

The 25th Amendment says that a declaration that the president can no longer carry out his duties '-- made by the vice president and a majority of either the Cabinet or another body determined by lawmakers '-- would elevate the vice president to the position of acting president.

The president could then restore his powers by declaring that no inability exists, but the same entity that initially transferred power to the vice president would be able to respond by doubling down on their declaration that the president is unable to discharge his duties.

At that point, the vice president would continue to act as president if Congress, by a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate, agreed that the president remained unable to serve.

The new panel would not cut the vice president out of the process. "It can act only in concert with the vice president, who is the key actor under the 25th Amendment," Raskin said.

The process under current law would leave the Cabinet in the mix. "The situation without (Raskin's bill) is the situation we have now," Kalt told PolitiFact in an email.

"The Cabinet has a role in section 4 that this body would take over if the bill passed. Raskin and others feel that the Cabinet is too much under the president's thumb to take a robust role under section 4," Kalt said. "A more independent group like this would not feel so constrained."

Leaving the decision to the Cabinet does run the risk that loyalty to the president could override necessary action, Goldstein said. But a commission brimming with doctors carries its own risks, even if mental illness or physical incapacitation were front of mind for the amendment's writers.

RELATED: When can the 25th Amendment be used against a president?

If, for example, the president were kidnapped, on a plane that went missing, or out of reliable communication, "medical expertise would not be called for," Goldstein said.

Many in Congress at the time of the amendment's writing had misgivings about the idea of a medical commission, Goldstein said. They thought a decision involving the Cabinet would carry more legitimacy, and they worried an independent body could be used to harass the president.

They also left the language intentionally vague to account for scenarios they couldn't predict.

"The framers knew that they were not addressing all problems," Goldstein said. "But they realized that if they tried to address everything, they would probably get nothing through."

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Sat, 29 Jun 2024 22:44

Republicans are ramping up calls to invoke the 25th Amendment and remove President Joe Biden from office after Thursday night's debate.

GOP Representative Chip Roy said Friday that he plans to introduce a resolution urging Vice President Kamala Harris to use her constitutional powers to convene the Cabinet to declare Biden unable to carry out his duties as president.

Section 4 of the 25th Amendment'--which has never been used since its adoption in 1967'--allows the vice president and a majority of the Cabinet or Congress to deem the president "unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office." Under such circumstances, the vice president would immediately become acting president.

GOP calls to remove Biden come after his troubling performance on Thursday's debate stage with Donald Trump. The president, 81, struggled to dispel concerns about his age, with watchers noticing his hoarse, weak voice early in the event. At one point, he trailed off while speaking, unable to finish his answer to a question.

"I think anybody with eyes and anybody observing objectively last night saw an individual that is not capable of carrying out the duties of the commander in chief in a world in which we're, you know, facing increasing dangers," Roy told reporters on Friday.

President Joe Biden speaks during his debate with Donald Trump on Thursday in Atlanta. Some Republicans are calling for Biden's Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to replace him with Vice President Kamala Harris. President Joe Biden speaks during his debate with Donald Trump on Thursday in Atlanta. Some Republicans are calling for Biden's Cabinet to invoke the 25th Amendment to replace him with Vice President Kamala Harris. Justin Sullivan/Getty ImagesAsked what he thought of the calls to invoke the 25th Amendment, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday that if he were in Biden's Cabinet, "I would be having that discussion with my colleagues at the Cabinet level."

"We've definitely entered 25th Amendment territory," GOP Senator Mike Lee wrote in a post on X (formerly Twitter) shortly after the debate concluded.

GOP Representative Anna Paulina Luna said Biden's debate performance was another reason for the Justice Department to release the audio recordings of special counsel Robert Hur's interview with the president in his classified documents case. On Friday, Luna told Fox Business that if Biden sounds "incompetent" on those tapes, "we could invoke the 25th Amendment."

"I believe that if those tapes come out, I believe that [the Cabinet] would have to [vote on ousting Biden]," Luna said. "And I say that based on last night's performance and the outcry from Democrats, from various news outlets, from the American people, at Joe Biden's performance."

Dave McCormick, a Republican candidate for the Senate in Pennsylvania, agreed that Biden's Cabinet should consider invoking the 25th Amendment.

He told Pittsburgh radio station KDKA, "If what we saw last night is reflective of what he is like day to day...if the man that got confused and turned around is the man that they're dealing with every day, if you're secretary of defense or attorney general or secretary of state, you have a responsibility to say, 'Hey, wait a second, this guy is not up to the job.'"

Conservative commentator and former Trump official Sarah Isgur tweeted, "Forget the election, this is heading into 25th amendment territory." Billionaire Bill Ackman, who has said he would not vote for Biden and is open to voting for Trump, as he did in 2016, said, "The question to ask is: Who is actually running the country?"

"No one will call the question because the 25th amendment says that the next in line is the Vice President," Ackman wrote on X.

A video of Trump talking about the 25th Amendment during his time in the White House was recirculated by the popular conservative page End Wokeness after the debate. In the clip from January 2021, Trump is heard saying, "The 25th Amendment is of zero risk to me, but will come back to haunt Joe Biden and the Biden administration."

It's not only Republicans who have brought up the 25th Amendment. Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show, poked fun at the idea, saying during his broadcast Thursday night that Biden had "resting 25th Amendment face" when it was Trump's turn to talk.

"So Biden, perhaps not on top of his game. So maybe I will check out this young upstart Donald Trump," Stewart said before clarifying, "Just so we're all clear: Everything Donald Trump said in that clip is a lie, blatant and full."

In February, a poll conducted by Redfield & Wilton Strategies on behalf of Newsweek found that a third of Americans support Biden's removal under the 25th Amendment. The sentiment was largely split along party lines, with 52 percent of Trump 2020 voters agreeing with the statement, compared with only 26 percent of Biden 2020 voters.

Harris, meanwhile, has made it clear she would not consider such a move. The vice president defended Biden after the debate, saying that while he had a "slow start," he ended the 90-minute event with "a strong finish."

Uncommon KnowledgeNewsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.

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Sat, 29 Jun 2024 21:16

News & ViewsHow an opioid giant...How an opioid giant deployed a playbook for moulding doctors' minds Feature Essay BMJ 2024 ; 385 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.q1208 (Published 10 June 2024) Cite this as: BMJ 2024;385:q1208 Sergio Sismondo 12, Maud Bernisson 21Department of Philosophy, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario, Canada2Institute for Science in Society, Radboud University, Nijmegen, NetherlandsCorrespondence to: S Sismondo sismondo{at}queensu.ca , M Bernisson maud.bernisson{at}ru.nl The opioid giant Mallinckrodt, selling more in the US than Purdue Pharma, was forced by the courts to publish more than 1.3 million internal documents. Sergio Sismondo and Maud Bernisson sift through nearly 900 contracts to reveal the tricks used to shape scientific and medical opinions

Mallinckrodt may be the largest seller of prescription opioids in the US that has garnered the fewest headlines. With $18bn (£14.1bn; '‚¬16.6bn) in sales from 2006 to 2012 and nearly 40% of all opioid pills sold on the US market, it was the lead producer of prescription opioids during that time.12 The more notorious Purdue Pharma ranked third. Mallinckrodt, with its baby blue 30 mg oxycodone tablets and various other opioids, paved a ''blue highway'' along the Appalachians to Florida.3 These tablets were so popular that counterfeits in the same hue and with Mallinckrodt's ''M30'' marking'--but containing fentanyl'--are still sold on the street today.4

Mallinckrodt survives as a multimillion dollar corporation, despite settling with the US government for lax handling of its opioid supply and later being ordered to pay $1.7bn over accusations of misleading and deceptive marketing practices to boost opioid sales. It has twice filed for bankruptcy and has largely avoided paying,5 but it did have to turn over 1.3 million internal documents, mostly from 2009 to 2017, which became public.

Mallinckrodt wasn't the first drug manufacturer forced by litigation into legal discovery, but unlike Purdue it didn't fight tooth and nail to keep its documents out of the public eye.6 The Washington Post, which had an exclusive first look at the Mallinckrodt files in 2022, revealed that the company ''cultivated a reliable stable of hundreds of doctors it could count on to write a steady stream of prescriptions for pain pills.'' A company spokesperson told the Post that it disagreed with the allegations despite ''negotiating a comprehensive, complete and final settlement.'' Mallinckrodt didn't respond to our request for comment.

For those of us who study pharma influence, the document trove was an unprecedented window into the inner workings of how a corporation not just directly co-opts physicians to push pills but also seeks to increase sales by influencing medical science and opinion'--an extensive marketing playbook that we call the ghost management of medicine.7 The day after the documents' release, we started exploring them.

The documents outline a smorgasbord of tactics to achieve greater sales'--from shaping the language of medicine through designing continuing medical education (CME) courses and recruiting physicians to serve as influencers, to planting articles in scientific journals. And all of this against the backdrop of an epidemic of addiction, in which the company's commercial rival Purdue was made to pay out hundreds of millions for fraudulent marketing.

Contracts to shape pain medicineContracts are especially telling because they reflect concrete efforts backed up by payments. We found 876 contracts for the development or circulation of medical information.8 Together they reveal a carefully coordinated effort to shape medical attitudes to pain medicine: specifically, to frame extended release opioids such as Exalgo and Xartemis as trustworthy innovations, while portraying opioids in general as the right treatment for both acute and chronic pain.

In 2009 the US Food and Drug Administration began requiring opioid producers to develop and implement risk evaluation and mitigation strategies using educational programmes for healthcare providers, pharmacists, nurses, and sometimes patients and others.910 At that time the addiction crisis in the US was raging: prescription opioid overdose deaths had more than quadrupled in the preceding decade.11 Purdue had just settled charges of ''fraudulent'' marketing with a payout of $600m in 2007'--at the time one of the largest in drug industry history. Headlines such as ''Addiction by prescription'' ran on covers of national magazines and newspapers and explained how some pain clinics and pharmacies had become ''pill mills.''12

While some doctors were still writing prescription after prescription'--and Mallinckrodt was selling more than ever'--other doctors were becoming cautious. As one sales representative reported back regarding ''flattening'' sales, doctors were concerned that Exalgo was ''too powerful'' and that ''patients are experiencing withdrawal and it's being interpreted as an adverse event.''

Drug companies have a long history of managing physicians' and public opinion by engineering buy-in from the top down, tapping physicians as key opinion leaders, designing research and ghostwriting medical journal articles, coordinating conference presentations, and even writing CME curriculums. As Mallinckrodt faced growing hesitancy among frontline prescribers, we found that the contracts showed how it employed each of those tactics as it sought to reframe concerns about addiction as a phobia and to muddle the very concept of dependence as ''pseudoaddiction.'' It even went so far as casting opioids as preventive medicine for chronic pain. To many busy physicians, these messages would have appeared as trustworthy scholarship and evidence based guidance.

We sought the reaction of long time observers of the drug industry. ''This behaviour is disturbing but not surprising,'' says Robert Steinbrook, adjunct professor of internal medicine at Yale University and director of the Health Research Group of the advocacy organisation Public Citizen. ''It's like they used every trick in the book.''

''Opioid-phobia''In response to the FDA's requirement that opioid manufacturers educate physicians about the risks and benefits of opioids, Mallinckrodt launched a CME programme named Remedies: Focus on Opioid Tolerance. Mallinckrodt initially spent about $2.5m on the CME, targeting 10'‰000 physicians, and then expanded and continued the programme to reach 88'‰316 prescribers by February 2017.

In a summary of the programme, a Mallinckrodt regulatory expert listed among its advantages: ''education on higher doses of long acting opioids,'' ''[enhancing] Mallinckrodt's reputation with key opinion leaders, patient advocacy groups, and medical specialty societies,'' and ''[underscoring] Mallinckrodt's credibility with the FDA as a company that cares about . . . safe opioid prescribing.'' Art Morelli, Mallinckrodt's vice president of medical affairs at the time, said that key opinion leaders (KOLs) needed to be ''involved in content to make it credible.'' One of the company's paid KOLs, Michael Brennan, a pain management physician in Bridgeport, Connecticut, was reported as listing ''opioid-phobia'' as one of the primary barriers to optimal pain management. The report went on to quote him as saying, ''If REMS [risk evaluation and mitigation strategy] is proscriptive, we will see a significant reduction in what are considered optimum meds.''

Mallinckrodt had revived the idea of physicians' ''irrational and undocumented fear that appropriate use will lead patients to become addicts,'' as one 1985 journal article had defined ''opiophobia.''13 The term was almost always used to downplay or dismiss physicians' and patients' concerns about addiction.

Charles Argoff was programme co-chair of Mallinckrodt's Remedies programme and also served as an educator. He came with an impressive r(C)sum(C)'--he had written more than 130 papers and was on the editorial boards of Pain Medicine News, the International Journal of Pain, and the Clinical Journal of Pain. And from 2013 to 2022 he received around $200'‰000 a year from opioid manufacturers.1415 Argoff declined our request to comment.

PseudoaddictionMany of Mallinckrodt's key messages were to be found in Argoff's 2010 book Defeat Chronic Pain Now!, which the company actively promoted: at some of Mallinckrodt's CMEs, Argoff would do book signings. Among other things, the book discussed pseudoaddiction'--the idea that a patient's need for higher doses (traditionally seen as developing tolerance of, or dependence on, a substance) was different from addiction. ''Only rarely does opioid medication cause a true addiction when prescribed appropriately to a chronic pain patient who does not have a prior history of addiction,'' Argoff and his coauthor wrote.16

Concepts such as pseudoaddiction are helpful for framing expert opinions. Mallinckrodt arranged for a medical education and communication company called MedLogix to prepare slides for Lynn Webster, one of Mallinckrodt's KOLs, to deliver at a 2013 advisory board meeting. The slides carefully circumscribed and downplayed addiction: tolerance, physical dependence, and pseudoaddiction, they suggested, were easily confused with addiction; misuse, abuse, and overdose were conceptually distinct. This allowed the company to focus on its positive contributions: Mallinckrodt's long acting and extended release formulations, including its new oxycodone, were cast as ''abuse-deterrent formulations'' that had a ''role in filling unmet needs in acute pain management.''

Adriane Fugh-Berman, professor of pharmacology and physiology at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, has been researching the marketing tactics of the drug industry for 30 years. She says that ''creating the term 'pseudoaddiction' and distorting the terms 'tolerance' and 'dependence' were strategies that distracted physicians from noticing their patients were addicted.''

Many roles of KOLsKey opinion leaders are central to the marketing playbook. They appear in articles, advisory boards, speaker programmes, and CMEs. From 2014 to 2019 Mallinckrodt provided grants of around $1m a year to the American College of Physicians and Pri-Med, a CME provider, to develop more risk evaluation and mitigation strategy initiatives. The grants funded five Mallinckrodt KOLs, including Argoff and another veteran of the Remedies CME, Bill McCarberg, to develop and teach a new programme on safe opioid prescribing.

Mallinckrodt's managers lauded Argoff's performances. In an email Morelli described Argoff as a ''top, top KOL.'' Morelli went on to say, ''I have worked with him at three pharma companies on various pain programs. He knows what we are trying to do and supports us.''

KOLs would often be brought into the company's fold by invitations to serve on advisory boards. The term ''advisory board,'' or ''ad board,'' suggests that physicians will be in the role of advising pharma executives. More often, however, the guidance flows the other way.

For example, a 2014 advisory board in Orlando, Florida, focused on possible research plans. The organisers' summary of the event paid scant attention to gathering information, recording only one brief scientific or medical comment from each of five of the attendees. However, the summary did record attendees' very high scores for ''meeting planning communications, hotel accommodations, travel arrangements, and quality of food and beverages.'' Mallinckrodt seems to have wanted to communicate information to the attendees and to cement relationships through hospitality.

The most common way that companies such as Mallinckrodt use KOLs is for speaker programmes, in which a KOL gives a presentation to a group of clinicians, assembled by a sales representative, often over a catered meal. In the US the programmes are typically treated by the FDA as marketing events, meaning that KOLs must use the slides and rough script given to them by the company, to avoid risks of off-label marketing.7

Speakers need training, of course, and this is often accomplished over long weekends in attractive locations, such as Orlando, Florida (home of the Walt Disney World Resort), where 70 physicians and their families attended a 2011 speaker training event for the newly launched Exalgo. Typically, so called medical education and communication companies develop the slides and run these training events. A 2011 contract with one such company, the Selva Group, involved creating four slide decks on a methadone product that Mallinckrodt was distributing. The contract specified that Selva would provide around 40 slides for each presentation and speaker notes for all slides, which would be vetted by Mallinckrodt and a small number of KOLs to be chosen by the company.

Drug companies pay KOLs to read the slides, but the physicians understand that part of their responsibility is also to put on a good show. In 2010, after receiving a 71 slide programme for Exalgo, Steven Simon, a physician specialising in pain management and one of Mallinckrodt's KOLs, complained to the speaker bureau coordinator that ''it will be difficult to hold the attendees' attention'' and suggested that he would improvise with some ''creative conversation.'' In 2012 a Kansas City based district sales manager raved that Simon was ''the best Exalgo speaker I have heard'' and that he ''happens to be one of the largest if not the largest Exalgo [prescription] writer in the nation.''

''Pain is a disease''Another aspect of the ghost management of medicine is strategically charting out medical journal articles and abstracts that must be written so that KOLs have evidence they can point to in professional meetings. ''Publication planning is a normal part of medical marketing,'' says Fugh-Berman, ''and is extremely important to the manipulation of physicians' perceptions of both drugs and diseases.''

Advisory boards and KOLs are often engaged in publication planning. At a June 2013 meeting in Dallas, Texas, Mallinckrodt convened 14 of its top KOLs for a wide ranging discussion aimed at developing scientific articles about ''unmet needs in acute [pain] management.'' The group would brainstorm at least 12 rough concepts for articles, mostly review articles on subjects ranging from directions in acute pain management to the more controversial ''risk factors for pain chronification'' to one with the direct title, ''The Time has Come: Pain is a Disease.''

Alongside ''pseudoaddiction,'' Mallinckrodt used the term ''chronification'' for the market friendly notion that untreated acute pain develops into chronic pain. That concept showed up in a review article that began as a 2013 contract with MedLogix. The article would look at risk factors for misuse, as well as the twin problem that ''acute pain is commonly undertreated in a wide variety of populations.'' MedLogix would ''research, draft, revise, submit, and coordinate authorship'''--a classic case of ghostwriting.

The first author of the review article was among Mallinckrodt's most prolific physician KOLs: Lynn Webster, one of the founders of a specialised contract research organisation, Lifetree Clinical Research. There he led many studies of Mallinckrodt products, earning Lifetree millions of dollars in revenue. He also served as an author on manuscripts sponsored by the company and sat on multiple advisory boards. Later, in 2018-19, Webster garnered some $75'‰000 from Mallinckrodt in ''general payments,'' according to CMS Open Payments, a federal transparency database.

Webster was no stranger to the problem of opioid misuse. A prominent pain specialist, he was coauthor of an ''opioid risk tool'' to assess patients' chances of misusing the drugs, a 10 item questionnaire widely used and often cited. In 2013 he was president of the American Academy of Pain Medicine. At a personal level, his own son had become addicted in the mid-2000s. In a recent memoir Webster described his deep anguish and the questions that his son's addiction had raised about his own practice. Ultimately, he focused blame on an interior ''blueprint'' made up of genetics, internal constitution, and perhaps family circumstances'--not the availability of prescription drugs.17 Webster, who didn't respond to our request for comment, continued to treat patients in pain with opioids.

When the review article, first raised in 2013, was published, it suggested that, relative to their immediate release cousins, extended release opioids (such as Exalgo) decreased the risk of misuse and that clinicians and payers should give them preference.18 Then the idea of chronification neatly turned the tables on the problem: physicians can reduce the use and misuse of opioids by prescribing them promptly and effectively. ''Efforts to prevent chronic pain may eliminate extended exposure to opioids, which could, in turn, minimize drug abuse,'' the article declared.

Stephen Butler, an anaesthesiologist at Uppsala University in Sweden, who has researched opioids and chronic pain, says that there is ''almost no evidence from good research to support the claim that there is any preventive strategy in the treatment of acute pain that prevents the evolution to long term pain.'' However, he notes that ''early cessation of opioids . . . will avoid opioid dependence.''

Unfortunately, early cessation conflicted with Mallinckrodt's primary goal, captured by a sales manager's exhortation in a 2013 email to the reps under him: ''You have only 1 responsibility, SELL BABY SELL!''19 Despite the judgments against it and bankruptcy filings, Mallinckrodt continues to sell opioids today, with sales of some $262m in 2023, up 25% from the year before.

AcknowledgmentsWe thank Jennifer Block and the external and internal BMJ reviewers. A separate report on this research project is published as Bernisson M and Sismondo S: ''Promoting opioids, a story about how to influence medical science and opinions'' in Frontiers in Medicine, doi:10.3389/fmed.2024.1327939.

FootnotesCompeting interests. The authors declare that financial support was received for the research and authorship of this article. MB was part of the NanoBubbles project, which has received Synergy grant funding from the European Research Council, within the European Union's H2020 programme, grant agreement no 951393. SS's collaboration with MB was supported by a Radboud Excellence professorship and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada grant 435-2022-0182.

Provenance and peer review. Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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Sat, 29 Jun 2024 20:59

Reform UK has made an official complaint against Channel 4 amid a row over footage of one of the party's canvassers.

Andrew Parker, a part-time actor who lists ''secret filming'' among his skills, was shown in a Channel 4 News bulletin using a racial slur against Rishi Sunak.

Nigel Farage has said he wanted nothing to do with Reform candidates who have been exposed as racists '' but claimed the incident involving Mr Parker was staged, prompting Channel 4 to stand by its reporting.

Adam Richardson, the Reform secretary and a barrister, said he had also made a formal complaint to Essex Police on behalf of Mr Farage.

In his letter to the Electoral Commission, Mr Richardson said it was ''entirely evident that Mr Parker was a plant within the Channel 4 News piece''.

''It is wholly unbelievable that by complete coincidence Channel 4 were performing an undercover investigation and by chance were paired up to go canvassing with a man who was pretending to be someone else, using a false voice and saying almost exclusively racist and bigoted remarks.

''The Channel 4 broadcast has clearly been made to harm Reform UK during an election period, and this cannot be described as anything short of election interference.

''It is entirely untrue that Mr Parker had any connection with Mr Farage as he details in the documentary, and has obviously attempted to use this fictional association to smear him in the national media and damage his campaign.''

When told Reform had reported Channel 4 to the Electoral Commission, Mr Parker said: ''Good '' I'm glad.''

Mr Parker declined to say whether he had been paid by Channel 4 to appear in the footage. The broadcaster denies that any payment was made. ''It'll all come out in the papers,'' he told the PA news agency. ''What'll come out is the truth.''

A spokesman for Channel 4 News said: ''We strongly stand by our rigorous and duly impartial journalism, which speaks for itself.

''We met Mr Parker for the first time at Reform UK party headquarters, where he was a Reform party canvasser. We did not pay the Reform UK canvasser or anyone else in this report. Mr Parker was not known to Channel 4 News, and was filmed covertly via the undercover operation.''

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Sat, 29 Jun 2024 20:46

Joseph Simonson of the Washington Free Beacon explains how one bad Biden administration policy is thwarting another bad Biden administration policy.

In 2021, the Biden administration pledged it would build 500,000 electric vehicle charging stations by 2030. So far, it's built seven.

Last month, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg'--who administers the funds apportioned for EV charger construction in the $1.2 trillion Bipartisan Infrastructure Act'--said Americans should not be surprised at the time it takes to stand up ''a new category of federal investment.''

''It's more than just plunking a small device into the ground,'' Buttigieg said in an interview with CBS's Face the Nation.

But internal memos from the Department of Transportation obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, as well as interviews with those who are responsible for overseeing the implementation of the electric vehicle charging station project, say the delay is in large part a result of the White House's diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.

''These requirements are screwing everything up,'' said one senior Department of Transportation staffer who spoke on the condition of anonymity. ''It's all a mess.''

President Joe Biden has reportedly expressed frustration with the pace at which his much-touted infrastructure projects are getting built. A ''close ally'' of the White House told CNN last December that Biden ''wants this stuff now,'' and a White House spokesman added that the president ''constantly pushes his team to ensure we are moving as quickly as possible.''

But Biden may only have himself to blame.

Shortly after taking office, the president signed an executive order mandating that the beneficiaries of 40 percent of all federal climate and environmental programs should come from ''underserved communities.'' The order also established the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, which monitors agencies such as the Department of Transportation to ensure the ''voices, perspectives, and lived realities of communities with environmental justice concerns are heard in the White House and reflected in federal policies, investments, and decisions.''

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Sat, 29 Jun 2024 18:46

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) will begin accepting applications starting on Monday, July 1 through its updated Emergency Assistance for Livestock, Honeybees, and Farm-raised Fish Program (ELAP) to provide financial assistance to eligible dairy producers who incur milk losses due to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, also known as H5N1infection in their dairy herds.

USDA's Farm Service Agency (FSA) expanded ELAP through the rule-making process to assist with a portion of financial losses resulting from reduced milk production when cattle are removed from commercial milking in dairy herds having a confirmed positive H5N1 test. Positive test results must be confirmed through the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL).

ELAP provides emergency relief to eligible producers of livestock, honeybees, and farm-raised fish to assist with losses due to disease, adverse weather, or other conditions, such as wildfires, that are not covered by other FSA disaster assistance programs.

H5N1 infections have been detected in 12 states including Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. Dairy producers in all states are reminded to stay vigilant and follow established APHIS biosecurity, detection and testing guidelines. In addition to testing, enhanced biosecurity is critical to containing this virus. USDA works closely with state animal health official, producers, and industry organizations to provide guidance and resources for cleaning and disinfection not only on affected farms but for all livestock producers as a part of practicing good biosecurity.

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Sat, 29 Jun 2024 14:37

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Fri, 28 Jun 2024 14:26

Folks, this is truly stunning.

They are trying to destroy our food supply!

As someone who sits in this chair and covers the news each day, I see this firsthand.

Heck, we covered this one just this morning:

BREAKING: Explosion Sets Chicken Plant Ablaze In Texas

I knew there have been a lot of food processing plants and other food supply buildings that have burned down, blown up or otherwise met a catastrophic, untimely end in the last 3 years, but I had no idea just how many until I saw it all together in one place.

I've been here to cover each of these, but it's really jarring when you see it all in one place.

Watch this video:

STUNNING: This map shows all the food processing plants that have either caught fire or been destroyed...

They are trying to destroy our food supply! pic.twitter.com/LTjTv3Kq74

'-- DailyNoah.com (@DailyNoahNews) January 31, 2024

If you're not the video type, then see it in print below...

Here's a complied list of nearly 100 fires from 2021 and 2022 from Rumble:

1'-- 4/30/21 Monmouth Smithfield Foods pork processing plant2'-- 7/25/21 Memphis Kellogg plant3'-- 8/13/21 JBS beef plant4'-- 8/24/21 Patak Meat Company5'-- 7/30/21 Tyson River Valley ingredient plant6'-- 10/21/21 Darigold plant7'-- 11/15/21 Garrard County food plant8'--11/29/21 Maid-Rite Steak Company9'--12/13/21 San Antonio food processing, West side Foods10'--1/7/22 Hamilton Mountain poultry processingPlant11'--1/13/22 Cargill-Nutrene feed mill. Lacombe, La12'--1/31/22 Winston-Salem fertilizer plant13'--2/3/22 Wisconsin River Meats14'--2/3/22 Percy dairy farm15'--2/5/22 Wisconsin River Meats processing facility destroyed by fire in Mauston, Wisconsin.16'--2/15/22 Bonanza Meat Company goes up in flames in El Paso, Texas17'--2/15/22 Shearer's Foods Food processing plant explodes in Hermiston, Oregon.18'--2/16/22 Indiana Louis-Dreyfus soy processing plant19'--2/18/22 Bess View Farms20'--2/19/22 Lincoln premiere poultry21'--2/22/22 Shearer's Foods potato chip plant22'--2/22/22 Fire destroys Deli Star Meat Plant in Fayetteville, Illinois.23'--2/28/22 nutrient AG Solutions fertilizer facility burns24'--2/28/22 Shadow Brook Farm & Dutch girl Creamery burns25'--3/4/22 294,800 chickens destroyed at farm in Stoddard, Missouri26'--3/4/22 644,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, Maryland27'--3/8/22 243,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in New Castle, Delaware28'--3/10/22 663,400 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, Maryland29'--3/10/22 915,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Taylor, Iowa30'--3/14/22 Wayne Hoover dairy farm, barn full of cows burns313/14/22 2,750,700 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Jefferson, Wisconsin32'--3/16/22 Walmart Distribution Center burns for 76 hours in Plainfield Ind.33'--3/16/22 Nestle Food Plant extensively damaged in fire and new production destroyed Jonesboro, Arkansas34'--3/17/22 5,347,500 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Buena Vista, Iowa35'--3/17/22 147,600 chickens destroyed at farm in Kent, Delaware36'--3/18/22 315,400 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Cecil, Maryland37'--3/19/22 Walmart Food Distribution center catches fire in Plainfield, Indiana38'--3/22/22 172,000 Turkeys destroyed on farms in South Dakota39'--3/22/22 570,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Butler, Nebraska40'--3/24/22 Major Fire at McCrum Potato Plant in Belfast, Maine.41'--3/24/22 418,500 chickens destroyed at farm in Butler, Nebraska42'--3/25/22 250,300 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Franklin, Iowa43'--3/26/22 311,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota44'--3/27/22 126,300 Turkeys destroyed in South Dakota45'--3/28/22 1,460,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Guthrie, Iowa46'--3/29/22 Maricopa, Az. Food Pantry burns down 50,000 pounds of Food destroyed in Maricopa, Arizona.47'--3/31/22 Rio Fresh Onion factory damaged by fire in San Juan, Texas.48'--3/31/22 76,400 Turkeys destroyed in Osceola, Iowa49'--3/31/22 5,011,700 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Osceola, Iowa50'--4/6/22 281,600 chickens destroyed at farm in Wayne, North Carolina51'--4/9/22 76,400 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota52'--4/9/22 208,900 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota53'--4/12/22 89,700 chickens destroyed at farm in Wayne, North Carolina54'--4/12/22 1,746,900 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Dixon, Nebraska55'--4/12/22 259,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Minnesota56'--4/13/22 Fire destroys East Conway Beef & Pork Meat Market in Conway, New Hampshire.57'--4/13/22 Plane crashes into Gem State Processing, Idaho potato and food processing plant58'--4/13/22 77,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota59'--4/14/22 Taylor Farms Food Processing plant burns down Salinas, California.60'--4/14/22 Salinas food processing plant61'--4/14/22 99,600 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota62'--4/15/22 1,380,500 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Lancaster, Minnesota63'--4/19/22 Azure Standard nation's premier independent distributor of organic and healthy food, was destroyed by fire in Dufur, Oregon64'--4/19/22 339,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota65'--4/19/22 58,000 chickens destroyed at farm in Montrose, Colorado66'--4/20/22 2,000,000 chickens destroyed at egg farm in Minnesota67'--4/21/22 Plane crashes into and destroys General Mills68'--4/22/22 197,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota69'--4/23/22 200,000 Turkeys destroyed in Minnesota70'--4/25/22 1,501,200 chickens destroyed at egg farm Cache, Utah71'--4/26/22 307,400 chickens destroyed at farm Lancaster Pennsylvania72'--4/27/22 2,118,000 chickens destroyed at farm Knox, Nebraska73'--4/28/22 Egg-laying facility in Iowa kills 5.3 million chickens, fires 200-plus workers74'--4/28/22 Allen Harim Foods a chicken processing company based in Delaware killed nearly 2 million chickens75'--4/2822 110,700 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin76'--4/29/22 1,366,200 chickens destroyed at farm Weld Colorado77'--4/30/22 13,800 chickens destroyed at farm Sequoia Oklahoma78'--5/3/22 58,000 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin79'--5/3/22 118,900 Turkeys destroyed Beadle S Dakota80'--5/3/22 114,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania81'--5/3/22 118,900 Turkeys destroyed Lyon Minnesota82'--5/7/22 20,100 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin83'--5/10/22 72,300 chickens destroyed at farm Lancaster Pennsylvania84'--5/10/22 61,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania85'--5/10/22 35,100 Turkeys destroyed Muskegon, Michigan86'--5/13/22 10,500 Turkeys destroyed Barron Wisconsin87'--5/14/22 83,400 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania88'--5/17/22 79,00 chickens destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania89'--5/18/22 7,200 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania90'--5/19/22 Freight train derailment Jensen Beach FL91'--5/21/22 57,000 Turkeys destroyed on farm in Dakota Minnesota92'--5/23/22 4,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania93'--5/29/22 200,000 Chickens killed in fire in Minnesota94'--5/31/22 3,000,000 chickens chickens destroyed at Forsman egg farm facility in Stockholm Township, Minnesota95'--6/2/22 30,000 ducks destroyed at Duck farm Berks Pennsylvania And96'-- S & P Meats Burn Down in Spokane, WA. Gone In Summer 2021

Just like I sincerely doubt Hillary and Bill Clinton have over 100+ friends and close business associates who committed suicide or died under strange circumstances, I do not believe these are all accidents.

No way.

This looks intentional to me.

This looks like an intentional destruction of America from the inside to me.

So now the big question: What can YOU do about it?

And how can you keep your family safe?

Read this:

Former Soldier's Insider Warning Reveals America's Food Security NightmareTeddy Daniels risked his life and bled for America. He was awarded the Purple Heart for his bravery...And he continues caring for and protecting his nation.So when he warns us that something big is coming... We better listen.Recently, Teddy releaseda new set of shocking discoveries. His insider access and military experience brought to light a dangerous threat that looms over America.A danger that threatens one of our most critical pillars of infrastructure...Our food supply.In this exclusive report, Teddy reveals the causes and consequences of this threat...Along with 3 Fatal Food Secrets that you need to know to keep yourself and your family safe.You won't hear any of this from the corrupt mainstream media.In fact, has anybody else pulled back the curtain on what is really going on with America's food supply before this? (Teddy explains everything here.)In the first 2 minutes you'll learn about this looming threat...Stay tuned a bit longer and you'll learn the 3 Fatal Food Secrets and what Teddy personally does to prepare and keep his family food-secure'...No matter how bad things get.To access Teddy's Exclusive Report '' before it's too late '' Click Here.

(Note: Thank you for supporting businesses like those from our partners and friends including the sponsored message above and ordering through the links provided, which benefits WLTReport. We appreciate your support! It's our pleasure to serve you and keep you prepared and safe as best we can!)

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WASHINGTON '-- The Supreme Court on Thursday blew up the massive bankruptcy reorganization of opioid maker Purdue Pharma, finding that the settlement inappropriately included legal protections for the Sackler family, meaning that billions of dollars secured for victims is now threatened.

The court on a 5-4 vote on nonideological lines ruled that the bankruptcy court did not have the authority to release the Sackler family members from legal claims made by opioid victims.

In aftermath of the decision, the Sackler family, Purdue Pharma and lawyers for the plaintiffs expressed hope that a new deal could quickly be reached.

As part of the original settlement, the family, which controlled the company, had agreed to pay $6 billion that could be used to settle opioid-related claims, but only in return for a complete release from any liability in future cases.

A pharmacist holds prescription painkiller OxyContin, made by Purdue Pharma, at a pharmacy in Provo, Utah, on April 25. George Frey / Reuters fileConservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, writing for the majority, said the Sacklers could have declared bankruptcy but instead sought to piggyback on the company's own bankruptcy proceedings in an effort to resolve pending legal claims.

"They obtained all this without securing the consent of those affected or placing anything approaching their total assets on the table for their creditors," Gorsuch wrote.

"Nothing in present law authorizes the Sackler discharge," he added.

Gorsuch was joined in the majority by three of his conservative colleagues and one liberal, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.

Conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh dissented, citing the impact of the decision on those who would benefit from the settlement.

"Today's decision is wrong on the law and devastating to the more than 100,000 opioid victims and their families," he wrote.

As a result of the ruling, "opioid victims are now deprived of the substantial monetary recovery that they long fought for and finally secured after years of litigation," he added.

Fellow conservative Chief Justice John Roberts joined Kavanaugh's dissent, as did liberal justices Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

The ruling means settlement talks with the Sacklers would have to begin again, while the separate Purdue Pharma bankruptcy proceedings continue.

Purdue Pharma described the ruling as "heart-crushing" because of the impact on victims, but pledged to move forward with efforts to negotiate a new settlement.

"The decision does nothing to deter us from the twin goals of using settlement dollars for opioid abatement and turning the company into an engine for good," the statement said.

A statement issued by members of the Sackler family said they "remain hopeful about reaching a resolution that provides substantial resources to help combat a complex public health crisis."

"While we are confident that we would prevail in any future litigation given the profound misrepresentations about our families and the opioid crisis, we continue to believe that a swift negotiated agreement to provide billions of dollars for people and communities in need is the best way forward," they added.

Jayne Conroy, a lawyer representing some of the plaintiffs, said that various lawsuits against the Sacklers that were put on hold as a result of the settlement would resume if no new deal is reached.

The Sacklers will be under "a lot of pressure" to reach a quick settlement or face "a massive onslaught to secure assets that may be hidden around the world," she added.

The case drew further attention to the lingering effects of the opioid crisis and the role that Sackler-owned Purdue played in creating it.

As part of the proposed deal, which the Supreme Court put on hold last year when it took up the case, the Sackler family had agreed to pay around $6 billion that could be used to settle opioid-related claims, but only in return for a complete release from any liability in future cases.

The settlement, including assets held by Purdue, would be worth significantly more, with the reorganized company set to dedicate itself to tackling the impact of opioid abuse.

No Sacklers have had any involvement in the company since 2019.

Purdue made billions from OxyContin, a widely available painkiller that fueled the opioid epidemic. The company's tactics in aggressively marketing the drug came under increasing scrutiny as thousands of people died from opioid overdoses.

As the company's fortunes nosedived, it sought bankruptcy protection, but the Sackler family members did not. Instead, they negotiated a separate deal with Purdue and plaintiffs in pending lawsuits that would allow the company to reinvent itself to address the opioid crisis.

The New York-based 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals last year approved the plan over the objection of William Harrington, the U.S. government trustee monitoring the bankruptcy. The Justice Department's trustee program is aimed at ensuring that the bankruptcy system operates as required under law.

Harrington objected to the release of additional claims against the Sacklers, saying it would be unfair to potential future plaintiffs.

Purdue criticized Harrington's role, saying that groups representing thousands of plaintiffs have signed on to the settlement, which could not have happened without the Sackler family contribution.

At the Supreme Court, various groups representing plaintiffs backed Purdue, including one that includes 1,300 cities, counties and other municipalities and another representing 60,000 people affected by the opioid epidemic.

Canadian municipalities and Indigenous First Nations were among those objecting to the settlement.

Purdue flourished under brothers Mortimer and Raymond Sackler, who died in 2010 and 2017, respectively. The family reaped billions and spent lavishly, including on splashy charitable projects.

The family told the Supreme Court that it continues to back the settlement.

In a brief filed on behalf of the relatives of Mortimer Sackler, most of whom are based overseas, lawyers warned of ''significant litigation costs and risks'' in seeking to enforce any foreign court judgments against the family if the settlement were thrown out.

Lawrence Hurley Lawrence Hurley covers the Supreme Court for NBC News.

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Credit: Getty ImagesIn a recent segment on Fox News, former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany dropped what she described as a ''bombshell'' concerning the current state of the Biden campaign.

McEnany quoted a post from Doug Kass, a hedge fund owner and prominent figure within the Democratic party, who claimed to have insider knowledge about a meeting taking place between President Joe Biden, his former Chief of Staff Ron Klain, and former President Barack Obama.

According to Kass's post, Jill Biden is insistent about Joe Biden running for re-election, causing tension within his own campaign. Kamala Harris is reportedly ''furious'' that she is not being considered as a potential replacement candidate.

Kass mentioned that his neighbor in East Hampton is scheduled to host the Bidens at a fundraiser tomorrow, Saturday. He suggested that whether or not this event goes ahead as planned could provide significant insight into the current state of affairs within the Biden campaign.

''What I am hearing regarding Joe Biden. Ron Klain and Barack Obama are having a sit down with the President today. Jill Biden is insistent that Joe runs. Kamala is furious that she is not being considered as a replacement (Whitmer and Newsom are). Interestingly my neighbor in East Hampton is hosting the Bidens tomorrow. It will be an important tell if the fundraiser is cancelled,'' Doug Cass wrote on X.

What I am hearing regarding Joe Biden. Ron Klain and Barack Obama are having a sit down with the President today. Jill Biden is insistent that Joe runs. Kamala is furious that she is not being considered as a replacement (Whitmer and Newsom are). Interestingly my neighbor in'...

'-- Dougie Kass (@DougKass) June 28, 2024

WATCH:

Whoa pic.twitter.com/R2dXWKtCHC

'-- Karli Bonne' (@KarluskaP) June 28, 2024

The Gateway Pundit reported earlier this month that Democrats have a secret plan to replace feeble Joe Biden if he falters in his initial debate with Trump or if his poll ratings continue to decline.

A concerted effort by Democratic heavyweights such as Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer would be required to persuade Biden to step down'--a scenario described as high risk by a Democratic strategist speaking to DailyMail.com.

The situation leaves the Democratic Party in a precarious position. Should Biden refuse to withdraw, the party must manage not only the challenges posed by a determined incumbent but also the potential fallout from progressive factions that might oppose bypassing Vice President Kamala Harris for another nominee.

Strategists are theorizing about possible scenarios, including holding a public event to symbolically transfer power should a new nominee be selected. Such an event would likely feature Biden alongside Democratic leaders like Obama, Clinton, Schumer, and Pelosi, all endorsing the newly chosen candidate, as per sources.

Democrat Insiders Reveal Clinton, Obama, Pelosi, Schumer's Secret Plot to Replace Feeble Joe Biden

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Sat, 29 Jun 2024 18:37

23-09-2022 - Geplaatst door Andre Piet22 september 2022, Rotterdam (geb. de Aker)De Schrift spreekt dikwijls over ''hemel en aarde'' maar ook over wat zich daarin, daarboven maar ook daaronder bevindt. Zo zijn daar de ''de wateren boven het uitspansel''. Maar ook ''de wateren onder de aarde''? En ''de afgrond''. Hoe moeten we ons dat alles voorstellen? Maar ook: hoe spreekt de Schrift over deze dingen? Klopt de bewering dat de Bijbel een platte aarde leert?

Om zicht op het Bijbels wereldbeeld te verkrijgen, dienen we voor alles scherp te hebben wat de betekenis is van een begrip. In deze studie de vraag: wat is de aarde?

Delen: